| The Distillers – Beat Your Heart Out Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
I think its about being scared of becoming someone you're not. If I think of it as a love song, it could be between her and an ex but could also be between her life at home Vs the fans and her life on the road. Which is to say that performing (for a venue or a boyfriend) and feeling the love toward them makes her "heart beat faster" but also "drains" her although now "the damage was done". The idea that she "set it light" is to say she's set herself or passions on fire and then reflecting that "it burned so bright", that her own destruction was beautiful. "Stab it out" is an interesting line. It seems to be used as a way of saying "stomp it out" after she "set it light" but she continues to say it after "nothing left take the rest". So what she's getting at is not only was she broken, but she wanted them to "stab it out" of her. |
|
| Atomship – pencil fight Lyrics | 9 years ago |
|
I love this song but that's more because of its versatility. You could say it’s about overcoming suicide or abuse but that's simplifying it or seeing it in a narrowly. In a broader way, to me it’s about impermanence. The lyricist lets you fill in subtext by telling you a story that can be an allegory for anyone's need for meaning and finding control in their life through a destructive force. So in broad strokes, this is my breakdown stanza by stanza. The first verse refers to a pencil made of steel, not literally but its seems to be where his mind goes when life is similar to a cancer; which existentially is always. We live, we lose, we feel, we slowly die every day. That’s not being Emo or negative, it’s just a fact. The second verse goes into a different direction as it describes what a pencil fight means exactly in the perspective of our narrator. The lyrics talk about defying authority just by having the fight, the destruction of his own pencil being somewhat explosive. He seems to be using it as a safe outlet for his destructive frustrations and the feelings of inadequacy that are common for most teenagers but if not addressed can lead to depression and social anxiety. To me the bridge seems more about struggling with impermanence. Realizing we all will eventually die is a right a passage that everyone takes differently. Some kids put way too much importance in meaningless relationships and pointless gestures of pride. Here the lyrics use pride as a meaningful pursuit but that is to cherish what was rather than accept a meaningless existence. While living in the past may seem just pointless, the point is that we all have to deal this way. It’s no different from believing a religion, having hope for tomorrow or having faith in ourselves, either way we all do it or our problems fester in the face of nihilism. The chorus is both sincere and vague having only two lines. Thinking “Pencil Fight” not only is following an ideal that not only will we die but we need to break stuff to feel in control. The second line seems both guilty and relived because only after we explode do we realize how destructive our actions were. In fact, the whole song can be read as a story about a kid who's in shock after his unbreakable is broken and then struggles with the meaning of a world where his pencil is nothing but splinters in his hair and he’s the one that did it. Understanding that everything will eventually break he decides to find substance in the fact that he broke things well, because what else do we really accomplish in life? Even when we build homes for the homeless we do so only by destroying trees. Creating a pace maker involves mutilating matter to surgical need. So take pride in your destruction since all we leave behind are splinters. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.